Torsion beam axles of the prior art comprise two trailing arms connected to one another by a cross-member. The trailing arms are each connected to a wheel carrier of a wheel of the torsion beam axle.
From the prior art, wheel-adjacent electric drives for driving a wheel of a driven axle in electrically driven vehicles are known, which are fixed on brackets, in this case being attached to the chassis members, for example on the torsion beam. By virtue of this design the unsprung mass is reduced since the electric drives are arranged close to the connection point of the beam to the vehicle body.
In addition, in the case of wheel-adjacent electric drives for driving a wheel of a driven axle, it is known from the prior art to integrate the electric machine and the transmission in the trailing arm of the torsion beam axle associated with the wheel concerned. By virtue of a high gear ratio of the transmission connected between the electric machine and the driven wheel, the electric machine can be designed very compactly so that it can be integrated in the trailing arm. Furthermore, the electric machines are preferably designed for high-torque rotation so that a high power-to-weight ratio (kW/kg) of the drive unit and small electric machine dimensions are obtained.
Moreover, from the prior art it is known to integrate the connection of the damper associated with the wheel and the spring associated with the wheel in the trailing arm.
Advantageously, the use of wheel-adjacent electric drives for driving a wheel of a driven axle in the vehicle body results in greater flexibility, since omitting the central drive in the middle of the vehicle provides additional degrees of freedom in the design of the vehicle, especially in the design of the vehicle's interior space, the battery accommodation area and the crash safety provisions.
Moreover, by virtue of wheel-adjacent electric drives, drive torques can be produced individually for each wheel, whereby functions such as torque vectoring, ESP, ABS, ASR, etc. can be realized in a simple manner. Thanks to the ability of electric drives to be controlled more rapidly and more exactly compared with conventional brake-based control systems, these functions can be optimized.